F5 BIG-IP Spoke
Summarize
Summary of F5 BIG-IP Spoke
The F5 BIG-IP Spoke (version 1.3.0) enables ServiceNow customers to automate management of servers and pools within the F5 BIG-IP system, supporting BIG-IP version 13.1.0. It requires an Integration Hub subscription and depends on specific ServiceNow plugins for REST actions and runtime capabilities.
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This spoke provides sample flows, subflows, and actions that demonstrate and facilitate automation of common F5 BIG-IP tasks such as creating virtual servers, managing pools, and handling pool members directly from ServiceNow.
Key Features
- Sample Flows: Prebuilt draft flows like local traffic management that allow creating virtual servers, associating pools, and adding pool members from ServiceNow Service Catalog requests. These flows can be customized by cloning them into new application scopes.
- Sample Subflows: Includes subflows such as pool management to create and manage pools in the BIG-IP system.
- Automated Actions: Extensive set of actions for pool management (create, add member, check health, delete, enable/disable members, retrieve members, remove members) and server management (add profile, create, delete, update virtual servers) to automate F5 BIG-IP tasks based on ServiceNow events.
- AI Agents: Standalone AI agents are available for pool and server management, enabling autonomous execution of common BIG-IP tasks through agentic workflows using large language model instructions. These agents can be cloned and customized to fit specific customer workflows.
- Connection and Credential Management: Uses Integration Hub aliases to simplify connection and credential handling for F5 BIG-IP system integration, minimizing maintenance when connection details change.
- MID Server Support: REST calls can be executed directly on the ServiceNow instance or via MID Server, offering flexibility in deployment and network configurations.
Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers
- Licensing: Ensure you have the required Integration Hub subscription and appropriate licenses for dependent plugins.
- Configuration: Properly configure connection and credential aliases pointing to your F5 BIG-IP host. Follow setup guidance for connections and MID Servers to enable smooth communication.
- Customization: Leverage sample flows, subflows, and AI agents as starting points and customize them to automate F5 BIG-IP workflows tailored to your operational needs.
- Permissions: Verify that users running AI agents have the necessary roles and permissions to perform actions on the relevant tables and systems.
Using the F5 BIG-IP Spoke streamlines network traffic management and server pool operations directly from ServiceNow, increasing automation efficiency and reducing manual configuration errors.
Manage servers and pools in the F5 BIG-IP system.
Request apps on the Store
Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Integration Hub subscription
This spoke requires an Integration Hub subscription. For more information, see Legal schedules - IntegrationHub overview.
Spoke dependencies
If you’re having trouble installing the app, ensure that these dependent plugins are installed:
- ServiceNow IntegrationHub Action Step - REST (com.glide.hub.action_step.rest)
- ServiceNow IntegrationHub Runtime (com.glide.hub.integration.runtime)
Supported version
BIG-IP 13.1.0.
Spoke version
F5 BIG-IP spoke v1.3.0 is the latest version.
Spoke flows
The F5 BIG-IP spoke provides sample flows in the draft state to demonstrate automating F5 tasks. To customize a sample flow, copy it to a new application scope. Available sample flows include:
| Flow | Description |
|---|---|
| Local Traffic Management Using F5 Big-IP | Creates a virtual server, associates it to a pool, and adds pool member in the BIG-IP system from a ServiceNow Service Catalog request. |
Spoke subflows
The F5 BIG-IP spoke provides sample subflows to demonstrate automating F5 tasks. Available sample subflows include:
| Flow | Description |
|---|---|
| F5 Server - Pool Management | Creates a pool in the BIG-IP system and manages it. |
Spoke actions
The F5 BIG-IP spoke provides actions to automate F5 tasks when events occur in ServiceNow. Available actions include:
| Category | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pool Management | Create Pool | Creates a pool in the BIG-IP system. |
| Add Pool Member | Creates a pool member in the BIG-IP system. | |
| Check Pool | Checks pool health in BIG-IP system. Returns whether the pool is available, unavailable, offline, or if the status is unknown. | |
| Delete Pool | Deletes a pool from the BIG-IP system. | |
| Disable Pool Member | Disables a pool member in the BIG-IP system. | |
| Enable Pool Member | Enables a pool member of a specified pool in the BIG-IP system. | |
| Get Pool Members | Retrieves the list of members of a specified pool from the BIG-IP system. | |
| Remove Pool Member | Deletes a pool member in the BIG-IP system. | |
| Server Management | Add Profile to Virtual Server | Adds a profile to a virtual server in the BIG-IP system. Profiles enable you to control network traffic. For example, you can enable HTTP connections to the virtual server. |
| Create Virtual Server | Creates a virtual server in the BIG-IP system. | |
| Delete Virtual Server | Deletes a virtual server from the BIG-IP system. | |
| Update Virtual Server | Updates virtual server attributes in the BIG-IP system. |
Available AI agents
Install Now Assist for Integration Hub and start using the available AI agents. For more information, see Now Assist for Integration Hub.
- In the ServiceNow agentic system, you can create an agentic workflow that comprises of a set of large language model (LLM) instructions along with one or more standalone AI agents to execute an
objective. See Create an agentic workflow for information about adding AI agents to create agentic workflows as per your requirement and provide the required trigger.
You can also search for other available AI agents and add them to your agentic workflow. See Find AI agents for more information.
- You can create a clone of the required spoke AI agent and customize it as per your requirement. See Duplicate an AI agent for more information about creating a clone.
- See Now Assist AI agents for information about AI agents.
Available AI agents include:
| AI Agent | Description |
|---|---|
| F5 BIG-IP pool management AI agent | Manages (that is, adds a pool member, fetches pool members, disable a pool member, removes a pool member, creates a pool, deletes a pool, verifies a pool) pools in BIG-IP system. |
| F5 BIG-IP server management AI agent | Manages (that is, adds a profile to virtual server, deletes a virtual server, updates a virtual server, creates a virtual server) servers in BIG-IP system. |
- There might be AI agents installed with the Now Assist application that are not used in agentic workflows. To learn how to see all agents that are available on your instance, see Find AI agents.
- To find agents that might not be installed on your instance, visit the AI Agent Marketplace on the ServiceNow Store.
Connection and credential alias requirements
Integration Hub uses aliases to manage connection and credential information, and OAuth credentials. Using an alias eliminates the need to configure multiple credentials and connection information profiles when using multiple environments. If the connection or credential information changes, you don't need to update any actions that use the connection.
This spoke uses this alias record to authorize actions.
| Connection & Credential alias | Description | Connection alias requirements |
|---|---|---|
| F5_BIG_IP | Connection to the F5 BIG-IP system. |
|
To use the spoke connection alias, create an associated Connection record and an associated Credential record. For information about setting up the spoke, see Configure a connection for the F5 BIG-IP spoke.
MID Server requirements
These actions use REST calls that can run either on an instance or, optionally, through a MID Server. Use the connection record associated with the F5 BIG-IP alias to configure where actions run and, if needed, specify MID Server selection attributes. For more information, see MID server.
To set up the MID Server for this spoke, see Set up MID Server for a spoke.